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Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The Rasmussen Minute: The Red Line in Syria Is Now For Real

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad erased the red line President Obama drew in the sand a year earlier when he attacked his own people with chemical weapons in August 2013. In response, Obama retreated from his stern threats of consequences and holding al-Assad responsible for any such attacks. Instead of retaliating against Syria militarily, the Obama administration pursued negotiations for the removal of all chemical weapons from Syria - and ultimately claimed that the Syrians had given in.

Just days before leaving office earlier this year, Obama told CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes” that the Syrian government had given up its chemical weapons.

Less than 100 days into the Trump administration, however, al-Assad again used chemical weapons against his own people in northwestern Syria. Heart-rending video of the victims, many of them small children, spilled out onto the Internet and into the news, prompting outrage worldwide. A few short days and 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles later, the Syrian leader learned that President Trump is not President Obama. That’s the topic of this week’s Rasmussen Minute.